The Columbus Dispatchreports that a left-leaning political advocacy group has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that the owner of Pepper Pike-based Murray Energy Corp. “made an illegal corporate contribution to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign by forcing his employees to attend an Aug. 14 rally at the Century coal mine in Beallsville, Ohio.”Brian Rothenberg, executive director of ProgressOhio, said he would “be open” to dropping the complaint “if the Romney campaign pulls a TV ad featuring several dozen coal-smudged miners on risers behind Romney at the event, or if the campaign alters the ad to exclude the miners,” according to the newspaper.The ad against President Barack Obama, titled “War on Coal,” is running on television in Ohio's Steubenville media market and West Virginia's Wheeling and Parkersburg market.The Dispatch says some of the miners at the Romney event contacted an eastern Ohio radio talk show to complain that they were forced to attend. Murray Energy closed the mine for most of the day, citing safety and security concerns, then docked miners pay for the hours of work lost.Robert Murray, owner of the mining company, is a strong supporter of Mr. Romney and generous contributor to the GOP and its candidates, according to the newspaper.Murray Energy early this afternoon issued a statement in which it said it "has become aware, through media articles, that ProgressOhio, a radical leftist political advocacy group, has filed a baseless complaint against it with the FEC."The rest of the statement is as follows:Murray Energy has not yet been contacted by the FEC regarding the complaint, so any specifics of the allegations cannot be addressed.It is readily apparent that the complaint is nonsensical and completely without any merit whatsoever. It is clearly an attempt by ProgressOhio to try to embarrass the Romney campaign and to blunt and eliminate criticism of Mr. Obama's War on Coal.It is particularly an attempt by this radical organization to silence Murray Energy, and above all, its chairman, president and chief executive officer, Mr. Robert E. Murray, from speaking out against Mr. Obama and Senator Sherrod Brown as to how they have been destroying jobs in Ohio, especially coal mining jobs. In this, they will not succeed.Sign of the timesForest City Enterprises Inc. of Cleveland, which owns the Station Square entertainment development in Pittsburgh, has opened an electric car charging station there.The station is a venture of Forest City and The Car Charging Group. The Pittsburgh Business Times reports users will pay $2.49 an hour for the service, which is on the first floor of the Station Square parking garage.There are at least nine electric car charging stations in the Pittsburgh area, the paper notes.On the lookout for jobs
The state of Ohio has launched a website designed to help state residents find jobs in green energy, shale drilling and other parts of the energy industry.The site, www.OhioEnergyPathways.org, is part of an effort by the Ohio Board of Regents “to better align work force education and the demand of job creators,” Columbus Business Firstreports.Featured content areas include advanced energy, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and oil and gas. It also will include direct links to job openings on another state website, www.OhioMeansJobs.com.The paper notes that industry group Energy in Depth-Ohio earlier this year launched a website designed to be a resource for people looking for jobs in the state's Utica shale play with about two dozen companies, including Chesapeake Energy Corp., Halliburton and Anadarko Petroleum Corp.The art of the deal
Making legislation is not pretty.As a reminder, TheHill.com reports that backers of a Senate energy efficiency bill passed over the weekend “said that removing authorizations and new standards were necessary to gain traction in the Republican-controlled House.”Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Rob Portman, a Republican from Cincinnati, “got their energy efficiency legislation (S. 1000) through as an amendment to a previously passed House bill, but had to shed much of its weight in the process.”Sen. Portman weighed in with this statement: “Our amendment, while not everything we wanted, takes some reasonable and commonsense steps to ensure the federal government is coordinating with industrial manufacturers in developing and deploying industrial efficiency technologies.”TheHill.com notes the amendment was tacked onto a House bill that would “would update energy efficiency standards for products ranging from walk-in freezers to covered water heaters.” (The Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent, which could set it up for either a House floor vote or a conference committee.)The newer edition “largely emphasizes increased collaboration between the federal government and industrial sector to enhance energy efficiency,” according to TheHill.com. “It also expands energy efficiency efforts at federal facilities.”The amended bill “does not contain any authorizations or new efficiency standards called for in the original version,” according to the website. That “likely helped the bill play better with conservatives who are wary about expanding spending and adding regulations.”Coming soon to a theater near you
Fracking clearly has hit the big- time in cultural awareness.Slate.com notes that some major Hollywood stars — Matt Damon, John Krasinski (of “The Office”), Frances McDormand and Hal Holbrook among them — will appear in a film called “Promised Land,” directed by Oscar nominee Gus Van Sant.The real star of the movie, though, “is clearly the debate about fracking, the controversial drilling technique that has been hailed as an economic boon and reviled as an environmental nightmare,” according to the piece.To highlight both sides of that debate, Mr. Krasinski, who wrote the original script, has “dreamed up a story in which the man selling fracking to a hard-up farming town is himself a one-time small town guy who is definitely not evil — just misguided, probably.”But make no doubt about it — this movie will not come out in favor of fracking. The trailer for the film is embedded in the story.